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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27533968">look for me in the stars</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryroyalty/pseuds/starryroyalty'>starryroyalty</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Zine Pieces [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Homestuck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Study, Gen, Loneliest Girl Zine, Mentions of past deaths, Slice of Life</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-08 07:02:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,961</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27533968</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryroyalty/pseuds/starryroyalty</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A character study on Jade Harley and the happy ending she deserved. </p><p>For The Loneliest Girl Zine.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Zine Pieces [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945693</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>look for me in the stars</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Wrote this alongside Harvest Moon, so I was jumping between a fun, sweet story and a horror piece LOL</p><p>Anyways. Jade Harley deserves better and I love her.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If you asked who Jade Harley was, you would find that there are whispers of her magnitude and how grand her reach was across the universe. They tell tales of the Witch of Space and how she saved her friends alongside creating a new world, and praise her name whenever they think of how gorgeous their world is.</p><p>In reality, she’s…</p><p>Well. </p><p>An olive-blood troll makes her way through the grocery aisle on Earth C, double-checking cans before catching sight of a human at the end. The human tilts her head at a box of dog treats, ears flicking on the top of her head, and the troll freezes dead in her tracks.</p><p>
  <em> That...looks like the Witch of Space. I think it’s a really good cosplay though. Is there a con going on? I can’t believe I met a really good cosplayer, I wonder if she’s popular on any social media— </em>
</p><p>The Witch of Space cosplayer looks up and the troll balks at how excited she seems. The girl hurries on over with two cans in her hands, white fluffy dog ears pointed directly up. “Hey there!” She says excitedly, grinning with two buck teeth. The troll quietly admires the commitment to the cosplay and clears her throat when she catches sight of the long-tipped claws. “Hello…?”</p><p>“Sorry to bother you!” The cosplayer replies. “I just needed to ask which one would you prefer? It’s my friend’s birthday coming up, and I really want to surprise him with some Alternian food. Which one do you suggest?”</p><p>The troll gives a quick nod and goes over the food in the girl’s hands. “Well, you’ve got two different kinds of Grub Sauce in your hands, so you could do two different flavors for whatever you’re making. I’m going to guess Beefgrub…?”</p><p>“Something like that,” the girl grins. “I just need something yellow enough to, and bear with me here, look like piss. An inside joke with a friend! It won’t <em> actually </em> be piss, but I need to convince him long enough that it is.”</p><p>The troll nods slowly. Her life is fucking weird. “Alright, then. Uh, there’s mind honey on aisle seven if you’re into that. Can he handle it? I heard it’s a bit much for trolls who have never had it before.”</p><p>“He’s human,” the Witch of Space cosplayer responds. She sniffs at the cans before setting one in her basket; wait, that wasn’t there before? There’s a pumpkin insignia on it and—wait. It’s gone. The troll blinks once, twice, and feels something shudder in her. “He’s <em> human?” </em></p><p>“Yep! He’ll be fine, I swear.” The cosplayer waves her off. “It’ll be fine. If he dies, he can just come back again. I don’t think it’ll be a Just or Heroic death; if he goes out from <em> that, </em> then I’d really be impressed!” </p><p>The troll nods again and starts backing away. “That’s good! Um, is that all you needed from me?”</p><p>“Hm? Oh, yeah! I’m good!” The Witch of Space cosplayer smiles brightly. “Thank you! John’s going to be so excited to prank Dave again, we didn’t do it for the past three years to get his guard down and now we’re ready to strike.” </p><p>“...You’re really into the whole cosplay thing, huh.” The troll laughs nervously. “At least you’re dedicated?”</p><p>“Cosplay?” The girl looks down at her outfit and wrinkles her nose. “Oh, no; I’m the real deal! Nice to meet you, I’m Jade Harley and I’m the Witch of Space. I kinda expanded this entire world with my friends and family. I think it’s going well so far!”</p><p>“...Okay.”</p><p>“Ooh, right, you’ll need an example.” The Jade Harley cosplayer snaps her fingers and makes the troll’s basket grow bigger. The troll yelps and goes to grab the overspilling grubsteak from the sides, making sure it doesn’t hit the ground. “What the—”</p><p>“Sorry, I didn’t want to zap anything with electricity!” Jade Harley floats a few inches off the ground, feet trailing behind her. There’s a spark in her vivid green eyes and it makes the troll gulp in shock. “But yeah, that’s me! I’m sorry if I scared you though, I usually just eat whatever’s in the pantry but we actually ran out. Kinda crazy if you ask me, but Karkat eats a lot when he gets worked up!”</p><p>“The Knight of Blood,” the troll says faintly. “Cool. Alright. Can you tell him he’s got an admirer? He’s done a lot for trollkind and we really appreciate it.” </p><p>“Oh absolutely!” Jade says cheerfully, like she hasn’t just changed this troll’s entire life in the manner of a few minutes. “I’ll let him know. Thank you for the help!”</p><p>With that, she pops out of existence and leaves behind the troll staring into space. It takes her a few moments to get her bearings back, and then she whips open her crab phone, speaking urgently into the receiver. “Abbira, you’re <em> never </em> going to believe this—”</p><hr class="hr2"/><p>Jade Harley is a lot of things. She’s a sister, a grandma, and she might even be a clone. She’s been through a lot of shit by the age of 16, but now she’s 22 and still getting adjusted to life on Earth C. She bred the Genesis Frog and made their entire world to ensure that everyone in her session and the Alpha session would live to see another day.</p><p>She’s a Witch of Space who likes to pop in and out of locations; Dave jumps a few seconds forward and back, since he’s still working his way up to days, and John tends to vanish into the breeze sometimes when he’s feeling flighty or when he forgets to stay in this particular reality. Even Jade’s powers don’t extend to what the Heir of Breath experiences, and she’d rather stay that way.</p><p>Regardless, Jade Harley used to be the loneliest girl in the world. </p><p>And now she’s surrounded by people who love and care about her. </p><p>Life in the Troll Kingdom is quite fun, actually! She learned about troll culture through Karkat, who did his best to explain since he stayed indoors all the time, and whenever Kanaya came over from the Carapacian Kingdom to show off her outfits and talk with everyone else. They were all <em> technically </em> royalty, as Jade still kept her original title as Princess of Prospit, but she kept to the wilderness and liked to sleep with the stars over her head. </p><p>“It’s cathartic!” She’d explain to the Betas.</p><p>“You’re a furry if you stay out there in the woods, but we love you anyways.” Dave’s response had been. Rose had fired back with a retort that Dave was close enough to a scalie, since his boyfriend was modeled after an insect, and that started a war between the two Derse kids since Rose was <em> also </em> married to Kanaya. John had laughed so hard he cried, and Jade had watched them with a mixture of amusement and gratefulness. </p><p>It was strange actually having her friends with her. After talking to them through the computer for so long, getting to spend time with them was eye-opening. She was able to excitedly throw her hands in the air and almost knock someone out with the force of her fists. It’s so strange and dazzling to get to be around them, and no pixels get to obstruct their gorgeous faces. </p><p>John had told her that she’s the version of Jade that survived their Game Over timeline. Jade herself feels like she did; there’s something in her that aches but it feels <em> right, </em> even if her John and Davesprite were taken out on LOWAS. It still hurts whenever she thinks about smoking ruins on the floor of a Prospitan ship, and sometimes her ribs feel like they’re cracked. “It’s a remnant of the timeline,” John had explained one time. “Aranea crushed you with your own house and you apparently couldn’t revive, so you died pretty early! All of us feel our former deaths sometimes. You’re not alone in that!”</p><p>And although it was a bit disconcerting, Jade <em> did </em> feel better when her feelings and experiences were completely validated. It was a way of saying; we know what you went through, we understand, and we love you regardless. </p><p>Jade Harley finds that she meshes well with everyone she originally grew up with. She counters John’s flightlessness with her own constant float, and how often she’s used to objects vanishing, and easily understands Dave and Rose’s ramblings to reply with a retort and send Dave into fits of laughter, and gets along with the Alphas in their own way. </p><p>(She doesn’t know it, but she inspires Jake to be more confident, for Dirk to strive for an understanding of humans as actual breathing people instead of a concept, for Roxy to be brave and want to save others while Jane is so happy of having a family to officially be proud of, free from the Batterwitch’s clutches.)</p><p>Jade gets along with the trolls too; she and Terezi hit it off like a house on fire, shamelessly flirting and making fun of each other while dealing with Vriska, whose exasperation (yet subtle fondness) is always hilarious to make fun of. </p><p>There’s also Kanaya, who shares an aspect with Jade with Space and enjoys bonding over the miniscule things. Kanaya sometimes also needed to get out and go for a lovely adventure in the woods, and Jade was always there to join her, tail wagging and bouncing around in excitement. </p><p>And Karkat…</p><p>Karkat Vantas. Someone Jade can consider a best friend, someone who taught her to keep pushing forward regardless of how the world was against her. Even with his short stature (and how Dave kept making fun of him, laughing when Karkat would swat him with claws and yell), he always made Jade feel like they were on the same playing field. </p><p>Jade is a leader in her own right, but not like John; she takes the lead in science and adventure, using her childhood and smarts to formulate ideas and continue working on projects she wanted to finish before SBURB became her whole life.</p><p>What is a Witch of Space when their purpose is fulfilled? What happens when the Genesis Frog is glowing brightly in the eye of the universe, content and happy in the middle of the Battlefield? Jade’s honestly not sure if they should have beaten their session (and they shouldn’t have, they cheated SBURB and still managed to come out on top with a new world on top of it all) but she’s definitely not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. </p><p>She had asked Kanaya once, sat in her home with Rose and surrounded by cats, if Kanaya had felt the change in her own aspect. “It feels like a rift, a black hole of some kind,” Jade had admitted, nervously wringing her hands in her (incredibly deep) pockets. Rose had made them; a gift, since apparently women’s clothing were not intended to be practical in the slightest. </p><p>“It’s a travesty against fashion,” Rose had said when giving Jade her pants. “The concept of women’s pockets have been a sore subject for <em> years, </em> Jade. Why insist on having pockets when they hold practically nothing? Where else am I going to slip my wands and tarot cards when I need them at a moment’s notice?”</p><p>“You could use a purse,” Jade had replied, and laughed her ass off when Rose gave a genuine noise of disgust and promptly went to commission her wife for a pair of pants with pockets. </p><p>“I believe I understand what you mean,” Kanaya responded. “There’s a certain twist in my chest that feels unnatural. It might be due to not having a beating muscle anymore, but Rose has assured me that she feels the same with her own Light. There are no more corners of knowledge to reach from, and we are all restless in our own creation.”</p><p>There was a pause before Jade muttered, “Fuck, I hate Space sometimes,” and Kanaya had laughed so hard she cried, wiping away translucent green tears with a claw. </p><p>Nowadays, it’s different. There’s still a shift in her chest that resonates with the night sky and all that sits under it. It’s the protectiveness settled into her bones that causes her to zap around at night, ensuring that all her friends are safe and under no harm in their homes. It’s hard sometimes; she’s lost her Green Sun powers, which in essence came from Becquerel, but she still knows he’s there in the fluff of her ears and tail alongside how she’ll use her enhanced senses to live and tease her friends about.</p><p>Jade Harley is a genius. She has plenty of projects she never had the opportunity to finish, and takes to them so easily when she wants to. There’s no Scratch to be concerned about, and there aren’t several evil people going after them. (There’s also the faint whisper of Grimbark lurking in the back of her mind, and she keeps it at bay with her fangs and rage.</p><p><em> You will never take control of me again, </em> she snarls, claws outstretched. <em> I’m the fucking Witch of Space, Propsit’s dreaming royalty, and I will fucking bite the SHIT out of you. I’m better than you and I earned my right to be here. Fuck OFF.) </em></p><p>So. She has time to grow the garden she’s always dreamed about, and gets to work digging up dirt and burying seeds. After a hilarious conversation with Roxy and Jake about where <em> exactly </em> her pumpkins had been going, Jade’s determined to turn a section of land outside the Troll Kingdom into a huge garden full of so many plants and vegetables. </p><p>She also turns to inventing, getting along with Dirk and Roxy with her ideas and planning. The three will spend hours staying up, empty energy cans scattered off to the side, and do their best to keep each other in check. </p><p>“Solar energy is a viable energy source!” Jade would argue, throwing her hands into the air. “Dirk, we can’t exactly power stuff with fuckin’ Mountain Dew!”</p><p>“It <em> would </em> be pretty cool though,” Roxy would laugh, tapping a pencil against the planning paper. “I’m kinda sad we shot down your radioactive idea; you said you used to feed your dog radioactive steak and I think it would’ve worked!”</p><p>Dirk would pinch the bridge of his nose, exasperated. “No, Roxy, that <em> wouldn’t </em> have worked. We’re morons. We’re so stupid. How are we so goddamn smart and yet so fucking dumb?”</p><p>Jade loved their meetings. </p><p>Those meetings would also end up with the kids and trolls dragging them to get some rest, because they’d forget to sleep and their bloodstream would be more energy drinks/coffee than anything else. If John wasn’t available to pop in and zap all three out, Dave would have to drag his brother out and Jane would have to carry both Jade and Roxy away from their table, rolling her eyes affectionately at their whining. </p><p>And yet, it’s the life Jade always dreamed of having. She’s so, so happy just to even be here in the first place. This is the Jade that survived a Scratch reset, one that made it when her alternative timeline selves were killed and stuck in dreambubbles, the one that suffered her friends and family being killed. </p><p>Even despite all of SBURB’s drawbacks, she’d do it again. If this is the timeline where she ends up with everyone she loves, she’d definitely go through it again and grow together.</p><p>(John’s the only one with a concept of therapy; everyone else grew up isolated and with a warped sense of the world, and even though John absolutely has his own problems to deal with, he’s very insistent on getting everyone to work through their childhood and coping methods.</p><p>“As much as it worked on the meteor, I’m not having Vriska Serket talk us through our issues.” John joked, but the threat of it was still so huge that Dave immediately signed up and left without a word.)</p><p>Jade Harley is living her new life on Earth C, the way she was always intended to, and knows she deserves it. SBURB may have done its best to separate all of them, with how many doomed selves were killed just to defeat a fucking monstrosity, but she can proudly raise a middle finger to the game construct that got her killed way too many times.</p><p>Here she stands, top of the world, floating above her roof. It’s peaceful outside, and if she listens closely she can hear Karkat screaming a few floors below. There’s a <em> woosh </em> next to her; Dave, also floating, settling down to sit criss-cross. “Whatcha thinkin’ about?” He asks, slipping his sunglasses to the top of his head. She grins at the way Dave’s pupils dilate before leaning against him. </p><p>Before she can say anything, John pops in with Rose at his side. “Oh, is this a Beta night?” He asks, flopping over on their laps. Dave idly pats his face while Rose snorts, doing her best to not get crushed by John. “What’re we doing tonight? Stargazing? Watching movies until we get kicked out?”</p><p>“Or we can do our video game night,” Rose adds, sighing when Dave immediately replies, “Okay, no, we’re <em> not </em> doing that because you kick the shit outta me when we play Smash Bros together.”</p><p>“I’m sorry I’m not a button-mashing asshole, Dave, I have actual strategies that I implement—”</p><p>“You can implement my foot up your ass—”</p><p>Yeah. There’s really no place she’d rather be, so she leans against the Betas and stares up into the sky, content with any plan her idiots want to come up with.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And they live happily ever after for the rest of their lives. Someone finds a way for Karkat to stay immortal and that's that. I'll fistfight Hussie myself to make this canon.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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